Swiss National Bank Acquires 16,900 Shares of Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT)

Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 480,174 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,900 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Uniti Group were worth $2,641,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in UNIT. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in Uniti Group by 206.7% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 212,489 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,198,000 after purchasing an additional 143,210 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Uniti Group by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,344,312 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $7,394,000 after acquiring an additional 51,241 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Uniti Group by 2.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 106,104 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $572,000 after acquiring an additional 2,328 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Uniti Group by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,874,636 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $44,413,000 after acquiring an additional 452,411 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its stake in Uniti Group by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 255,119 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $1,402,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.51% of the company’s stock.

Uniti Group Stock Down 3.2 %

Uniti Group stock opened at $4.84 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $5.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $5.54. The company has a market cap of $1.18 billion, a PE ratio of 11.81 and a beta of 1.70. Uniti Group Inc. has a twelve month low of $2.57 and a twelve month high of $6.31.

Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 21st. The real estate investment trust reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $293.32 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $294.59 million. Uniti Group had a negative return on equity of 4.12% and a net margin of 8.82%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Uniti Group Inc. will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James upgraded Uniti Group from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $6.00 to $8.00 in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Uniti Group from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 23rd.

About Uniti Group

Uniti Group, Inc is a real estate investment trust company, which engages in the acquisition, construction, and leasing of properties. It operates through the following business segments: Uniti Leasing, Uniti Fiber, and Corporate. The Uniti Leasing segment involves mission-critical communications assets on exclusive or shared-tenant basis, and dark fiber network.